


From Russia With Love

by Ultra



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Bucky Barnes's Plums, Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Cuddling & Snuggling, Escape, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Foreign Language, Happy Ending, Love, Memories, Memory Loss, Natasha Romanov Feels, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Protective Natasha Romanov, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:22:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26232631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: When it became obvious that Bucky was in real trouble this time, Nat made it her mission to go and find him, before even the great Captain America could manage it. She tracked him all the way to Romania. The least he could do was remember her.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27
Collections: Het Swap Exchange 2020





	From Russia With Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Huntress79](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/gifts).



> Huntress79 - I hope this is something like what you were hoping for. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to write this - I didn't know how much I needed to do so until you inspired me! :)

The apartment wasn’t the nicest, but she had seen much worse. He wasn’t doing so bad, all things considered, and there was plenty to consider, that was for sure. Sitting down on the couch, Nat felt herself sink further than she expected and sighed. Okay, so, the place was a hole, but it was a safe hole, for a while anyway. She had a little time before they caught up to her, but probably not much before he got back.

Right on time, the door swung open, his eyes meeting hers across the distance. Forcing a steadying breath through her lungs meant she didn’t flinch, didn’t show what she was feeling. Nat knew the dangers inherent in letting her guard down, even with him - especially with him - today of all days.

“You know, I had a feeling you’d bolt before you got done at the market,” she said, allowing herself half a self-satisfied smirk as she nodded to the paper bag on the table.

If he recognised her, from any of the times they came across each other, he didn’t let it show. Not that she expected him to, not yet, anyway. She watched him closely as he stepped further into the apartment, closed the door behind himself without shifting his gaze from her face.

“Nu înteleg,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Cine esti?”

Her Romanian was a little rusty but the expression gave him away as much as anything. Something in his eyes, Nat almost believed he was just trying to hurt her, saying he didn’t understand, asking her who she was. Of course, she was well aware he could be for real.

All that he’d been through, everything they had done to him, she knew only too well. Put a brain in a blender enough times, the truth starts to become irretrievable. Sometimes, she had to wonder what she might have lost herself, what might have been wiped away that she could never get back. God only knew how he was still there, still in her head, in her memories.

“Cine esti?” he repeated, visibly swallowing hard.

Nat stood up in one fluid movement, noting how he didn’t react at all. Either he was that sure of himself or just numb enough not to care, or he knew exactly who she was and why she was here. She could read everybody else, even him, once upon a time, but not now, not like this. God, it hurt. Nat didn’t know it could feel any worse than before, but this was truly agonising.

“So, seems like maybe I came here for nothing,” she said, almost breezy with it even as her heart was breaking, just like they taught her. “Guess I’ll just leave you to your plums and your solitude, for a while anyway, until your buddy Rogers comes diving in for the dramatic rescue.”

One more deep breath as she pressed forward, heading for the door, knowing it was stupid, but unable to help it as she met his eyes one last time.

“The least you could do was recognise me,” she muttered as she went.

Nobody had faster reaction times than Nat, except maybe for him. She stopped mid-step as his hand - the real one - shot out to grasp her wrist. It wasn’t an attack, nothing violent, just a firm grip to keep her from walking out. She stared a moment at his fingers wrapped around her wrist and then shuddered when he finally spoke again.

“Natalia, пожалуйста, не уходи.”

Her eyes closed, her heart might have stopped too, Nat wasn’t sure. It had been so long since she heard her real name, longer since she heard it from his lips, followed by a plea for her not to leave him. As if it needed to be in Russian to prove his point, but she didn’t care.

Opening her eyes and meeting his gaze once again, it was so clear to her now. He knew her. He knew everything. That was shock enough. The single tear sliding down her own cheek was perhaps a bigger one.

“We don’t have long,” she told him, fighting to pull herself together. “What I said before wasn’t a bluff, Rogers is headed right here, and then some other guys, the kind that don’t exactly want to treat you nice.”

“I saw the papers.” Bucky nodded slowly, expression grave at that thought, and yet something like a sad smile was trying to break through in the very next moment. “I’m sor-”

“Don’t,” Nat told him firmly, a finger against his lips. “No apologies, no excuses. You didn’t choose this, James.”

Her using his real name seemed to have the same effect on him that it did on her, though she hadn’t done it on purpose. Her hand slipped to his cheek, pulling him closer and encouraging his eyes open. They were so close by then, she would’ve been disappointed if he hadn’t kissed her, if he hadn’t pulled her up into his arms and held her so tight, she wasn’t sure how she was even breathing anymore. Just like old times.

Of course, now really was not the time.

“Easy, soldier,” she said, pulling away, keeping him quite literally at arm’s length. “Reunion party is going to have to wait, much as I’d like it to be otherwise.”

“Do I really need to ask if you have a plan?”

Nat smirked at that. “I’d be offended if you did.”

When he smiled at her then, she was sixteen again. Not exactly as young and carefree as some that age, not with the upbringing she had, the Red Room’s teachings, but still, it didn’t feel bad.

She watched him slip away from her then, eyes tracing the floor a moment before he drew back the metal arm and struck down hard. Seconds later, his go bag was on his shoulder and he was looking back to her for instruction.

Nat never missed a beat.

“Let’s go.”

_Seven Years Later..._

Bucky still wasn’t used to waking up like this, knowing where he was, knowing who he was, and what to expect from the day that lie ahead. After all this time, he should have adjusted, but then, a lot had changed, even in the last few years.

For a long time, the skyline outside the window was rarely the same from one month to the next, but the head on the pillow next to him, that was always the same. From her, he knew exactly what to expect. In the whole world, he was maybe the only man who could say so, and that was no bad thing either.

“You know the watching me sleep thing?” she said, eyes still closed, smile pulling at her lips. “It’s still creepy.”

He waited until she actually looked at him and then shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ve been called worse,” he told her smartly.

“Haven’t we all?” Nat rolled her eyes, pulling herself up next to him, elbow in the pillows and head propped on her hand. “Trouble sleeping again?” she asked casually, as if it was normal.

Maybe the problem was that it had been all too regular a question with the same answer. For one of them to get through a whole night’s sleep without a nightmare was pretty much a miracle in the beginning. Even now, it still happened sometimes, less often, but the memories of what they were, what they had been, what they had done, it would never go away completely. To Bucky’s mind, it never should.

“Just not tired,” he confessed, looking back towards the window. “Besides, you know I like to watch the sunrise. New day, new possibilities.”

“No apocalypse on the horizon,” said Nat as she shifted closer until his arm - the new one, that was so much more like the rest of him - went naturally around her shoulders and squeezed her to him.

Bucky smiled as she kissed his chest and made herself comfortable, staring out at the same view he was watching so intently himself. Every day really did feel like a gift since they got back, him from the strange non-world that Thanos had banished so many to, her from the far reaches of space and another plane of existence that it was almost impossible to return from. It was a lot for a kid from Brooklyn who looked maybe thirty and was in fact more like a hundred.

“You’re thinking too hard,” she said, tilting her head back to look up at him. “I can feel it.”

“Of course, you can,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Like I didn’t earn the right to be thoughtful, after everything. You know, it probably means I’m certifiable, but I can’t help thinking that, for all the crap we’ve lived through-”

“Not to mention the crap that we _died_ through,” Nat noted, making him smile.

“I think we got pretty lucky. Fate, destiny, God, time, whatever it is that’s keeping score on this whole crazy life we have, it keeps on bringing us back together. That has to mean something, right?”

Leaning up, Nat put her lips to his and kissed him softly. “I like to think so,” she agreed with a smile.

When she shifted as if to move away, he only pulled her closer, initiating another kiss and then another. Before long they were rolling around in the sheets like the young lovers they once were, like the newlyweds they aspired someday to be, like two people forever connected and completely in love. Nothing could keep them apart for long, not time nor war nor death. It would be a fool who attempted to try.


End file.
